Getting Started Comic

• This question came in from Twitter today: "How would I go about getting a first storyboarding gig?" I thought I'd put my answer on the blog so others can read it too. 
• When I was starting out I had absolutely no idea how to look for work myself. It ends up being different for everybody. The big thing when I was starting out was to make sure LOTS of people saw my work. This was before the Internet got started, so I was working on my college newspaper, making comics and showing them off at conventions. It was meeting a Ren & Stimpy director at a convention that helped me get my start. He liked my comics, and he told me all about how storyboarding for TV works.
• The main thing that helped me get started was that I got my work OUT THERE where people could see it. That's a million times easier to do now than ever before; no publishing costs too get your work see by countless people through blogs and Facebook and Twitter, etc.
• Here's a crazy story: last year I came across a guy on Twitter. Never heard of him, never met him, nothing. His avatar looked cool so I clicked on his link. The art on his website was KILLER. So I tweeted and Facebooked about how much I liked this guy's stuff. Just one time. Just as an admirer…nothing to do with work. BTW: the guy is Matias Hannecke and his website .
• A couple weeks later Matias emailed me out of the blue to thank me for helping him get a job (!). Apparently one of my bosses here at Disney follows my Twitter/Facebook posts, he must have liked what he saw on Matias' website and hired him for a freelance development project. I didn't even know about it. My boss never even mentioned it to me. But because Matias had his (killer) artwork out there, easily accessible, and because he had a social web presence, a huge door was opened up for him. It's definitely not easy… You have to be very determined and somewhat thick-skinned to persevere through the storyboarding job-hunting maze. But I've noticed that perseverance and a constant dedication to improving your work goes a long way.

I hope that helps!